Paul Rouget, Media365: published on Tuesday April 9, 2024 at 12:15 p.m.
Author of a great start to the season, Jannik Sinner, solid world number 2, hopes to be able to continue on the Monegasque clay court. Even if it’s far from being his favorite surface.
He is the man of this first part of the year. As the clay court season begins, Jannik Sinner arrives ready. The young Italian (22 years old) played 23 matches in 2024, and won 22 of them. He suffered his only defeat against Carlos Alcaraz in the last four of Indian Wells, after winning his very first Grand Slam tournament at Australian Open and also won in Rotterdam. He also won his second Masters 1000, after Toronto, by triumphing in Miami last month. Solid runner-up to Novak Djokovic, he is only 1015 points behind the Serb, whom he could soon overtake. Except that ocher is not his favorite surface, far from it. Of his 13 titles, he only has one on land, won in Umag (Croatia) in the summer of 2022.
“Not the surface where I feel most comfortable”
In four appearances at Roland-Garros, he has only reached the quarter-finals once, during his first visit to Porte d’Auteuil in 2020, and remains eliminated in the second round last year. In Monte-Carlo, he made it to the semi-finals last year. And he hopes to be able to repeat such a performance on the Rock, where he will debut against Sebastian Korda or Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Even if clay is not his cup of tea, as he explained at a press conference. “The hard court season was very good for me. We’ll see what I can do on dirt. Last year I played well here, and then I didn’t play well. It’s going to be tough. It’s a surface where I usually have a little difficulty, but I’m excited to come back and do better,” he first explained. “It’s not the surface where I feel most comfortable. I feel better on hard. Which doesn’t mean I’m not a good player on earth. I played my first Grand Slam quarter-final on earth. I kept watch in Rome. Last year was not my best season on earth. Hopefully I can do better. I trust. It takes time. From the ages of 14 to 20, I trained a lot on land. Afterwards, I played more on hard courts on the Tour. I’m excited to be here. If we manage to make friends with the land, that can help,” concluded Sinner with a smile. Will he still have it at the end of this week in Monaco?
2024-04-09 10:15:00
#Sinner #hard
